But as he asserts that “the Mosaic narrative most impiously represents
God as in a state of weakness from the very commencement [of things],
and as unable to gain over [to obedience] even one single man whom He
Himself had formed,” we say in answer that the objection[650] is much
the same as if one were to find fault with the existence of evil, which
God has not been able to prevent even in the case of a single
individual, so that _one_ man might be found from the very beginning of
things who was born into the world untainted by sin. For as those whose
business it is to defend the doctrine of providence do so by means of
arguments which are not to be despised,[651] so also the subjects of
Adam and his son will be philosophically dealt with by those who are
aware that in the Hebrew language Adam signifies man; and that in those
parts of the narrative which appear to refer to Adam as an individual,
Moses is discoursing upon the nature of man in general.[652] For “in
Adam” (as the Scripture[653] says) “all die,” and were condemned in the
likeness of Adam’s transgression, the word of God asserting this not so
much of _one particular individual_ as of the _whole human race_. For in
the connected series of statements which appears to apply as to one
particular individual, the curse pronounced upon Adam is regarded as
common to all [the members of the race], and what was spoken with
reference to the woman is spoken of _every_ woman without
exception.[654] And the expulsion of the man and woman from paradise,
and their being clothed with tunics of skins (which God, because of the
transgression of men, made for those who had sinned), contain a certain
secret and mystical doctrine (far transcending that of Plato) of the
soul’s losing its wings,[655] and being borne downwards to earth, until
it can lay hold of some stable resting-place.
Footnote 650:
τὸ λεγόμενον.
Footnote 651:
εὐκαταφρονήτων.
Footnote 652:
φυσιολογεῖ Μωϋσῆς τὰ περὶ τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσεως.
Footnote 653:
Cf. 1 Cor. xv. 22 with Rom. v. 14.
Footnote 654:
οὐκ ἔστι καθ’ ἧς οὐ λέγεται.
Footnote 655:
πτεροῤῥυούσης. This is a correction for πτεροφυούσης, the textual
reading in the Benedictine and Spencer’s edd.